The Bee Hunters: A Tale of Adventure

CHAPTER V

CONFIDENTIAL CHAT

After conducting his guests to the compartment of the teocali which he had appointed for them, the Tigercat retraced his steps, and turned in the direction of a sufficiently ample excavation, which served for his own particular abode.

The old man walked at a slow pace, with his head raised, and his brow wrinkled under the tension of mighty thoughts. The flame of the torch he held in his right hand played capriciously over his countenance, revealing a strange expression on his features, where hate, joy, and uneasiness reflected themselves by turns.

When he arrived at his cuarto (bedchamber), – if it is right to give the name chamber to a kind of hole ten feet square by seven feet high, which contained as furniture a few skulls of the bison dispersed here and there, with a handful of maize-straw negligently thrown into a corner, and serving, no doubt, as couch for the inhabitants of this sorry refuge, – the Tigercat fixed his ocote torch in a bracket of iron made fast to the wall, crossed his arms on his breast, lifted his eyes with an air of defiance, and muttered the words:

"At last!"

Doubtless these words summed up in his thoughts a long series of dark and bold combinations.

After pronouncing these words, the old man cast a searching glance around him, as if he dreaded having been overheard. A mocking smile passed across his pale lips; he sat down on a bison's skull, and, burying his face in his hands, plunged into profound meditation.

A long time elapsed before he changed his position. At last, a slight noise fell on his ear: he lifted his head with a start, and turned towards the entrance to his cell.

"Come in!" he shouted. "I have waited for you with impatience."

"I think not!" replied a powerful voice; and the young hunter appeared at the threshold, where he stopped, holding his head erect, and looking proud and daring.

A shade crossed the forehead of the Tigercat.

"Ah, ha!" cried he, with pretended gaiety. "In truth, I was not expecting you, muchacho (boy); but never mind; you are welcome."

"Is that wish truly in your thoughts at this moment?" sneered the other.

"And why should it not be in my thoughts? Am I in the habit of disguising them?"

"It is a useful habit under particular circumstances."

"A truth I do not deny; but not in this case. Come in; sit down, and let us talk."

"I comply," answered the hunter, taking a few steps forward, "particularly as I have to demand an explanation from you."

The Tigercat frowned, and replied, with rising and ill-suppressed anger:

"Is it to me you speak thus? Have you forgotten who I am?"

"I forget nothing that I ought to remember," concisely replied the other.

"Boy! Have you forgotten that I am your father?"

"My father! Who will prove it?"

"You are over-venturesome," cried the old man in ire.

"After all," said the hunter scornfully, "it is nothing to me whether you be my father or not. What does it matter? Have you not told me a thousand times over, that bonds of relationship do not exist in nature; that they are only a factitious sentiment, invented by human egotism for the profit of the petty exigencies of debased society? Here, we are only two men, equals in strength and courage; of whom the one comes to demand from the other a clear and unvarnished explanation."

While the hunter was speaking, the old man fixed upon him a look which flashed fire from under his half-closed eyelids. When he ceased, the Tigercat smiled ironically.

"The wolf's cub feels he is cutting his teeth, and wants to bite his fosterer."

"He will devour him without hesitation, if it be needful," fiercely replied the hunter, as he let the butt end of the heavy rifle he carried in his hand fall violently on the ground.

Instead of being lashed into a fury by a menace uttered so peremptorily, the Tigercat suddenly became calm. His austere features lighted up with an expression of good nature which rarely visited them. Clapping his large hands together gaily, he exclaimed, with an air of lively satisfaction:

"Well roared, my lion's whelp! ¡Vive Dios! You deserve your name, Stoneheart! The more I see of you, the more I love you. I am proud of you, muchacho; for you are my handiwork, and I congratulate myself on my success in producing so complete a monster. Go on as you have begun, my son: I prophesy, you will go far."

The tone in which these words were pronounced by the Tigercat clearly proved that they were in reality the unreserved expression of his thoughts.

Stoneheart – for at last we know the name of this man – listened to his father with a shrug of his shoulders, and an affectation of disdain. When the latter ceased, the son replied as follows:

"Will you listen to me or not?"

"Certainly, my darling child. Speak! Tell me what frets you."

"Seek not to dupe me, gray-haired demon. I know your hellish malignity, and your unmatchable knavery."

"You are complimentary, muchacho."

"Answer frankly and categorically the questions I will put to you!"

"Bah, Bah! Go on, go on. What are you afraid of?"

"Of nothing, I tell you; but my time is short: I have no leisure to follow you through all the Indian circumlocutions it may be your pleasure to invent. That is why I listen to nothing but the plain truth."

"I cannot bind myself to that until I hear the questions you wish to put."

"Take heed, father! If you deceive me, I shall find it out, and then – "

"And then?" repeated the old man mockingly.

"May the devil take my soul, if I do not plant my bowie knife between your two shoulders."

"You forget that two can play at that game."

"So much the better; it will be a strife and I prefer it."

"You are not fastidious. But proceed; speak, or may the pestilence stifle you! I am listening. I, too, have no more time to lose than you."

Stoneheart, who up to this moment had been standing erect in the middle of the cell, seated himself on a bison's skull, and rested his rifle across his knees.

"Did you not expect to see Zopilote when I burst into your cell?"

"I did expect Zopilote: you have guessed it, muchacho."

"Having finished, with his assistance, the ruffianly deeds of yesterday and today, you two are anxious to concoct the treason you meditate tomorrow."

"On my soul, muchacho, you are incomprehensible!"

"The devil I am! Then your apprehension is dull today."

"Perhaps it is: but oblige me by explaining your meaning."

"I will; however, attempt no denial: only a few minutes ago I learned the whole story through the gossiping of the very men who were with you."

"If you know all, why do you come here to question me?"

"In the first place, to ascertain if they spoke truly."

"They could not speak more truly: you see, I am frank."

"Then you really did surprise these travellers in their sleep?"

"Yes, muchacho, like a litter of prairie dogs in their earth."

"You stole their horses and baggage?"

"In good truth, I did all that."

"Afterwards, you had them carried into the thick of the forest, to die a frightful death?"

"I did have them carried to the forest; but not, as you pretend to believe, for the purpose of leaving them to starve."

"For what other purpose, then? I cannot suppose it was with the intention of effacing all traces of the robbery. You care little about such precautions, and do not stick at a knife thrust."

"Admirably reasoned, muchacho. I had no intention to do these travellers the least harm in the world."

"Then what did you want from them? I cannot understand your conduct. It is marvellous."

"Confess that it mystifies you, my son."

"It does; but will you explain?"

"That depends upon circumstances. But now promise, in your turn, to answer a single question."

"One? I will answer it. Ask; I am listening."

"What do you think of Doña Hermosa? Has she not beautiful eyes! One would think she had stolen a piece of the sky, they are so blue."

At this home-thrust Stoneheart recoiled; a sudden flush tinted his features.

"Why do you ask me?" said he hesitatingly.

"What does that matter? Answer, as you have promised."

"I have scarcely looked at her," he replied, with increasing embarrassment.

"You lie, my son: you have looked at her often enough; or young men in these days are changed from what they were in my time – which I can hardly believe." "Well, then, I have; and I care not who knows it," said Stoneheart, in a voice in which embarrassment was mingled with ill humour. "I have looked at Doña Hermosa, if that is her name, and have found her beautiful. Are you satisfied?"

"Almost. Has this charming creature had no other effect upon you?"

"I am not bound to answer you, father: that is a second question."

"You are right; nevertheless, I know what your reply would be. I can dispense with it."

Stoneheart turned away his head to escape the searching look of the Tigercat.

"But now," said he, after a momentary silence, "let us return to your explanation."

"You are an ingrate, who will not understand. Have you not already discovered that all this business has been undertaken for your sake alone?"

Stoneheart started with surprise.

"For my sake? Is there anything in common between this girl and me? You are laughing at me!"

"Not in the least; on the contrary, I am speaking seriously."

"Even if you do, I confess I am still in the dark."

"Aha! You are laughing now at my expense. Throughout the whole of this comedy I assign you a capital part to play: I make you interesting; I introduce you as the deliverer; are you still in the dark?"

"I myself assumed the character which you say you assigned me; I adopted it myself, alone, without any interference of yours."

"Do you believe that, my son?" said the bandit, with a grin.

Stoneheart, not thinking it necessary to insist on this point, answered:

"I will admit that you may have arranged all that happened; but what are your intentions towards the travellers now they are in the teocali?"

"On my honour, muchacho, I confess that it is not settled yet; it depends entirely on yourself."

"On me?" stammered the other.

"Yes; on my honour. Reflect; decide what you wish me to do: I give you my word that I will conform to your wishes."

"Will you swear so, father, – solemnly swear?"

"Oh, yes. You see, I am very accommodating."

"It is exactly this pliancy, so foreign to your character and habits, which makes me tremble."

"Folly! What more unjust suspicion! It happens one day that I remember I am man; that it is my duty to succour my fellow creatures: and you give me no credit for it!"

"¡Caspita! How could it be otherwise? Your intrigues are so dark, the means you employ are so utterly at variance with common usage in similar cases, that, in spite of my knowledge of your character, the real object of your machinations perpetually eludes me."

The visage of the Tigercat lighted up once more with a smile of triumph; but he repressed it immediately, and assumed a look of paternal benevolence.

"In spite of all you say," he answered, "my object in this case is so plain that a child might see it."

"Then I must be an idiot, for I cannot divine it; on which account, I must beg you to explain your wishes frankly."

"To make you adore the little one, ¡vive Cristo!"

"Me!" exclaimed the hunter, astounded at the proposition, and purple with blushes.

"And whom else, if not you? – unless it were myself."

"No, no," said the other, shaking his head mournfully; "that is impossible: everything separates us. You have forgotten who she is; you have forgotten what I am – I, Stoneheart, the man whose name, pronounced to an inhabitant of the borders, makes him thrill with terror. No; it is the dream of a fool: a love like that would be monstrous. I repeat, it is impossible."

The Tigercat coolly shrugged his shoulders.

"My son," said he, "you have yet much to learn concerning that many-sided being, that graceful compound of angel and devil, that whimsical mixture of all good qualities and all vices, the world calls woman. Be quite sure, my son, that since the time of mother Eve, woman has never changed; there are the same treasons, the same perfidies, still the same feline nature of the tiger, mingled with the no less tortuous ways of the serpent. Woman must be quelled by the bold, or she will busy herself with the hope of quelling him; she will always despise the man for whom, in her secret heart, she feels no fear, and for whom she entertains no involuntary respect. Your chances of winning the heart of Hermosa, and installing yourself therein as master, are numberless; you are proscribed, and your name is a name of terror. Oh, my boy, love lives upon contrasts, knows no disparities, and despises the barrier raised by human vanity. The man most sure to succeed with a woman is precisely the only one whom, in the eyes of the world, she ought to repel the most."

"Enough of this theme!" cried the hunter violently; "Your horrible theories have already troubled my soul, and harrowed my heart. Let us stop this conversation, of which I am weary. Again, I ask, what are your intentions towards your prisoners?"

"I repeat, that it depends entirely upon yourself; they are in your hands."

"If that be the case, they shall not stay long in your hideous lair; tomorrow, at daybreak, they shall go."

"Just what I wish, my son."

"I myself will be their guide. You will restore everything you have taken from them – horses and baggage."

"You shall restore them yourself; you can easily invent a story for returning what belongs to them which shall not compromise me."

"Compromise you!" sneered Stoneheart.

"By our Lady," replied the Tigercat, with a hideous smile, "I stick to the only good deed of my life; I will not lose the credit of it."

"Then all is agreed between us; you will not break your word to me?"

"Rest in peace; I will not break it."

"Then, good-bye, till tomorrow. I go to make everything ready."

"Good night, my son. Do not take that trouble; I take it upon myself."

And the two men separated.

The Tigercat listened attentively to the sound of his son's footsteps as they died away in the distance. When silence was completely re-established, he shook his head more than once with a preoccupied air.

"Love makes him shrewd," he murmured in a suppressed voice. "I will not leave him leisure to divine my plans, or, at the moment it is within my reach, he would frustrate the vengeance I have been so many years in preparing."

Instead of retiring to his couch, the old man seized the torch, and went forth from his cell.

In the meanwhile, in spite of the fears naturally caused by their precarious position in the midst of people whose ferocious looks and brutal manners spoke little in their favour, the travellers had passed the night in tranquillity. No sound of evil augury had disturbed their repose; and, worn out by fatigue, and wearied with the various emotions of this day of misfortunes, after a short conversation, they settled themselves to sleep.

Doña Hermosa, on waking at daybreak, found herself perfectly free from the sufferings of the preceding day. Thanks to the remedy applied by the hunter to the wound, the place where she was bitten, now the venom was expressed, began to heal; she felt sufficient strength to resume her journey on horseback, and would be able to travel without too much fatigue. These good news dispersed the clouds which obscured the forehead of the hacendero, and he awaited, with lively impatience, the meeting with his host, which he had no doubt would not be long deferred. In fact, as soon as the Tigercat supposed that those to whom he had afforded shelter were awake, he presented himself before them to inquire how they had passed the night.

The hacendero thanked him warmly, assured him they were quite well, and that Doña Hermosa herself felt almost restored to health.

"So much the better," replied the Tigercat, casting a glance of fire at the girl. "It were a pity so charming a creature should perish in such a miserable manner. And now, what are your intentions? Be not offended at this question; I shall be happy to keep you at my side; and the longer you remain here, the greater my pleasure."

"Thanks for your gracious offer," said Don Pedro; "unfortunately, I dare not accept it: they will be uneasy on our account at the hacienda, and I must hasten in person to put an end to their alarm."

"You are right. Then you intend to depart?"

"As soon as I can; unhappily, I have no horses for the few leagues of the journey. I must put your hospitality still further to the test, although I hardly know how to thank you for what you have done already, by requesting you to sell me the animals I require to return home; at the same time, I would also crave a guide, to lead us through the forest which had nearly proved our tomb, and to put us once more on our right road. You see, caballero, that I make great demands on your courtesy."

"You only ask of me what is your right, señor; I will exert myself to fulfil your wishes. But how did it happen that you found yourself on foot in the virgin forest, so far from any habitations?"

The hacendero cast a furtive glance over the speaker; but the features of the latter continued immovable. Don Pedro then recounted all the details of the strange attack of which he had been the victim.

The Tigercat listened calmly, without interrupting him, saying, as soon as the recital was finished:

"All this seems very incomprehensible. I am annoyed at not having received this information yesterday evening. It is very late, now; but leave me to do what I can. Perhaps I may be able to cause your lost property to be restored to you; at all events I will furnish you with the means of reaching your hacienda. Entertain no fears on that score. I presume you would not like to leave this place before you have broken your fast; you can begin your journey as soon after breakfast as you please. I must leave you for a short time, to give the necessary orders for your departure. Excuse me. In an hour's time you shall hear from me again."

Having said this, he retired; leaving the travellers in astonishment, and perplexed as to his true character so easily did this man vary both manner and language.

An hour and a half passed over without Don Pedro receiving any news of his host. At the end of that time an Indian appeared, and without uttering a word, made a sign to the travellers to follow him. They obeyed without hesitation.

After following him for some minutes, they found themselves on the summit of the teocali which the evening before, under the silver rays of the moon, they had taken for a hill.

From this elevation the travellers commanded an immense extent of horizon, and enjoyed a magnificent landscape, still partially veiled by the mists of morning, but illumined here and there by the dazzling sunbeams, which produced the most striking effects amongst this chaos of trees and mountains intersecting the boundless prairies.

The morning repast was prepared on a mound of turf, covered over with the large leaves of the mahogany.

The Tigercat standing by the mound, was waiting for his guests. Some redskins, few in number, and scattered here and there about the platform, all armed, and in their war paint, were walking about with seeming indifference, and taking no apparent note of the presence of the strangers.

"I have preferred to have the meal served here," said the Tigercat, "where you can enjoy the magnificent prospect."

Don Pedro thanked him; and, at his repeated invitation, sat down by the mound with his daughter and Don Luciano. The peones ate by themselves.

The repast was frugal. It consisted of fritters, with red pepper, tasajo (sun-dried beef), a few slices of venison, and rolls made of maize flour, the whole washed down with eau de smilax and pulque, – a spirit prepared from a species of aloe. It was a true hunter's meal.

"Eat and drink," said the Tigercat; "you have a long journey before you."

"Will you not honour us by partaking of the repast you have gallantly offered us?" said Don Pedro, seeing that the old man continued standing.

"You must excuse me, caballero," replied the Tigercat civilly, but peremptorily. "I broke my fast long ago."

"Indeed!" said the hacendero, not content with the answer; "Then, at least, you will consent to empty this horn of pulque to my health."

"It grieves me to refuse you, señor; but it is impossible!" and he bowed.

These repeated refusals caused a sudden coolness between the guests and their host, in spite of the apparent graciousness of the old man's hospitality, – for the Americans of New Spain resemble the Arabs in this, that they only consent to eat and drink with those towards whom their intentions are friendly.

A vague suspicion crossed the mind of Don Pedro; and he looked inquiringly at his host, but could see nothing in the smiling face of the old man to justify his apprehension.

The repast was eaten silently. At its termination, Doña Hermosa, after thanking the Tigercat for his profuse hospitality, asked him if, before she left, she could not see the hunter who had rendered her such invaluable service the evening before.

"He is absent at present, señorita, – absent in your service; but I expect him to return immediately."